Protein, methionine+cystine and lysine levels for Japanese quails during the production phase

• Autor(a) principal: Garcia,EA
• Data de Publicação: 2005
• Outros Autores: Mendes,AA, Pizzolante,CC, Saldanha,ESPB, Moreira,J, Mori,C, Pavan,AC
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Brazilian Journal of Poultry Science (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-635X2005000100002
• topic: egg production; egg quality; Lysine; Methionine+Cystine; protein; quails

An experiment was conducted at Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia/Unesp - Botucatu for 168 days to evaluate the effects of protein, Met + Cys and lysine diet levels on egg production and egg quality of laying Japanese quails. Quails with 42 days of age were reared in a completely randomized design. There were 1,944 quails distributed in four replicates of 27 birds per pen, according to a factorial 3x3x2 with three crude protein levels (16, 18 and 20% CP), three Met + Cys levels (0.700; 0.875 and 1.050%) and two lysine levels (1.100 and 1.375%). Birds fed diets with 18 and 20% CP had higher feed intake and egg production than those fed diets with 16% CP. There was significant interaction (p<0.05) between protein and Met + Cys levels on egg weight. There was no effects (p>0.05) of the protein level on feed conversion per dozen eggs; however, improved feed conversion per egg mass was seen for birds fed diets with 20% CP compared to those fed diets with 16% and 18% CP. Protein and lipid percentage in the yolk increased when dietary protein level increased from 16 to 18%. Increasing Met + Cys from 0.700% to 0.875% reduced yolk protein percentage. Higher lipid percentage in the yolk was seen in eggs from quails fed diets with 1.050% Met + Cys, whereas 1.375% lysine in the diet of resulted in decreased egg production and egg mass, besides poorer feed conversion per dozen eggs and per egg mass.